Pulitzer Prize winner shares her love of reading

Pulitzer Price-winning columnist Anna Quindlen spoke about her immense passion for reading and writing Monday evening at Alumni Hall in the Indiana Memorial Union.\nQuindlen, who has worked in journalism for more than 30 years, has written five best-selling novels in addition to her Newsweek column, "The Last Word." She won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1992 for her former New York Times column, "Public and Private." \nIn her speech, she talked about why she thinks the written word is so important and how it has shaped her career.\n"Eye witnesses die, the written word lives forever," Quindlen said. "I hate to write, but I love having written."\nQuindlen, also a contributing editor for Newsweek, painted a mental picture of the beauty of being lost in a good book while stressing the relationship that reading has to writing.\n"We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming," Quindlen said. "It's impossible to be a writer without being a reader."\nShe also said her work as an author goes hand-in-hand with her work as a columnist.\n"Book tours help me as a columnist because I can help channel the mood of the American people," she said.\nAfter Quindlen's speech, she answered questions from the audience, describing some of her career transitions as well as the things that have inspired her to write.\n"I really enjoyed it," said senior Katie Soderberg. "It was interesting to see how she transitioned from being a journalist to a fiction writer."\nQuindlen is the last of three presenters this semester for the School of Journalism's speaker series, which also featured NPR's Michele Norris and foreign correspondent and essayist Christopher Hitchens.